The Aim of the Arrow
by Liz Hollow
Summary: Based on the mythical romance of Cupid and Psyche. AU. May has all she could ever want, until she finds herself the target of envy. Her only hope is that she might never gaze upon Steven, for she will lose everything if she does.


_Prompt: AU Mythology._

 _I'm playing around with this one a little since I've never really done an AU before. It's more like I'm incorporating aspects of both the myth and the games. Is that the point? I don't even know. But you all know how much I enjoy Greek mythology, especially when it comes to Steven and May! This is based on the mythical romance of Cupid and Psyche, with some obvious changes made to accommodate the ORAS canon. Enjoy!_

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 **The Aim of the Arrow**

In the region of Hoenn, there lived a powerful gym leader named Norman and his wife. Together, they had a daughter so talented and beautiful that she put Glacia, one of the Elite Four at the very height of talent and beauty, to complete shame. In fact, the daughter was so marvelous that many sung her praises to the point that Glacia was no more than a name.

Glacia did not plan to fall so easily to this girl, however. "I'll give her a reason to suffer," she decided with an ambience of pure ice—so cold and so hard that she might shatter any person who gazed upon her. "She'll regret being born."

She decided to call Steven Stone, a young man who had also been blessed with the gift of beauty, though not without his wits, as well. Kind though he was, he believed in justice, and it bothered him to see Glacia in such agony. Whatever the cause, Steven would be sure to bring back her happiness if it killed him.

"Steven, dear." Glacia sat in her room at Ever Grande, reserved for the elite alone, and put a hand to her forehead in sorrow. Steven rarely saw her so pitiable and suffered greatly at the sight. "There's a girl, May, who has done great injury to me. There have been whispers of her name turned into exclamations with implications that she is far more talented than you or I—fearfully so, I've heard." Glacia turned her gaze away from Steven, knowing that she could not so easily lie to him if she looked into his eyes. "Help me, Steven. Meet her and help her fall… so she is no longer a threat to us."

So Steven rushed down from Ever Grande to Hoenn's mainland at Glacia's request, searching far and long for this girl, May. Glacia had not been wrong; he heard May's name often, the newfound talent who might be able to change this world. But according to Glacia, this girl might very well change it for the worse instead of better.

Not so, though Steven was ignorant of this. May, with all of her talent and beauty, aimed to serve and protect the world. It was her duty, she decided, as the daughter of a gym leader and as an independent thinker. Thus, she traveled all across Hoenn searching for a way to help.

It was as she slept against a tree in a lonely forest that Steven found her. He was prepared to confront the girl—until he saw how soft and innocent her face appeared in her sleep. Her eyelashes were long and dark, and her cheeks flushed in the warmth of this spot. A teardrop even slipped down her cheek, the hint of a dream either gone wrong or a dream so wonderful that Steven could not comprehend it.

He kneeled beside her and reached out his hand to brush the tear away. But when his finger touched her skin, as soft as it looked, her eyes fluttered open. Their gazes met, and neither said a word. All May did was smile.

Steven jumped to his feet and fled, having failed to do what Glacia asked and wounding his own heart in the process. It was as though an arrow pierced him, one that was intended to destroy May but instead turned its head on Steven.

He returned to Ever Grande and slunk past Glacia's room to his at the end of the hall. She followed closely behind, spitting words over his shoulder. "Did you find her? Steven, dear, did you find May?"

"Yes." Steven remained facing forward, twisting the rings on his left hand with the finger of his right.

"Well? Did you manage to stop her?"

Steven paused and turned back, his glance suspicious towards the callous Glacia. "I don't think she's someone who needs to be stopped. All of the praise I heard has been positive—all of the exclamations of a hero. And when I found her sleeping, she seemed so at peace that confronting her would have been cruel."

Glacia, in her fury that Steven failed to complete the simple task she set forth to him, stomped away. But all was not lost for her. Fate worked its charms with more ease than people, and that was all it took to slow May down to an arduous crawl.

May seemed to reach the peak of her grace and power. She became a young woman, protector of the land as the gym leader's daughter. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she could not become content with her work. No matter how many times she stopped the villainous cults of Hoenn, no matter how many badges she received, she remained rooted in monotony.

Her parents pitied her despite all of her wonders because she made hardly a name for herself as time passed. All of the praise once sung faded into a quiet hum at the height of her skill, and those who raised her always hoped that she would receive more from fate. Certainly May deserved more than this.

"Please do not grieve now," May told her parents one night, nearly two years after her journey first began. "You should have lamented when I received all of that undeserved praise at the start, not now. I'm going to go to Ever Grande and challenge my fate, and then I might be the recipient of merited praise."

Thus May traveled away to Ever Grande, where the young man Steven hoped more than anything to see the girl once more. Glacia heard of her arrival and scowled, but Steven thought of May's sleeping face and felt his heart beat a little harder. He knew, though, that Glacia would do everything in her power to stop the two from meeting.

"Do not reveal yourself to her," she warned Steven. But then she smiled, as though the warning was merely out of concern for him. "You wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. I shall have to turn her away if you find each other face-to-face."

She warned the others at Ever Grande, too—those as elite as her. "Inform her that she cannot gaze upon the Champion. She may challenge us and him, but should she look at him, revoke her winnings and send her home. She may never challenge us again."

The others delivered the message to May, and she agreed. She liked the idea that the Champion could remain a mystery, though she couldn't deny that she was curious to meet him.

It was not her curiosity that got the best of her, however. Steven heard of May's victory over Sidney, the first of the Elite Four in Ever Grande. He left his room and stepped down the hall, standing on one side of the door as May waited on the other to pass to the next room. He would not go against Glacia's request. He only wanted a word.

"May, it's a pleasure," he greeted as the doors slid open. "Do not pass through just yet. I want to talk to you from here."

And so May stood in the light of Sidney's room on one side of the open door while Steven stood in the darkness of the hall on the other. She squinted, hoping to earn a hint of some sort, but then remembered Sidney's warning.

"Who are you?" she wondered. She knew not that she had seen him once before, though he may have only been an angel in her dreams then.

"Just a worker here," he responded, and there was no lie in what he said—he only withheld some of the truth from her. "I don't mean to frighten you. I've only heard such wonderful things about you. I confess that I've met you once before, as well. It's been a long time, and I wanted to talk with you before you continue forward."

"Those wonderful things you've heard aren't quite true, I'm afraid," May told him quietly, and Steven had to strain to hear her.

For a moment, he feared that there was truth to Glacia's words before. Was May truly the enemy here? Had he made a mistake in judgment by failing to bring her to justice?

"You're not the one who stopped Team Aqua? You're not the one who inspired others in battle?"

May sighed, and she turned around and leaned back against the wall between them. Sidney stepped out of the room, leaving just the two of them behind to converse in privacy. Though, admittedly, this anonymous privacy felt more so than that. It almost seemed as if May was talking to herself.

"I am, but—"

"Then there is no reason for you to doubt yourself," Steven interrupted, and he smiled. This was absolutely the girl he saw in the woods, and she was absolutely the good person he thought her to be.

He continued, "I'm afraid that Phoebe is not in today. You'll have to spend the night at Ever Grande before you continue your challenge."

"Thank you for telling me," May responded, and she pushed herself off the wall. "Do you have a name?"

"Steven."

May nodded. She wanted to turn around and see him, desperately so, but the image of him that she had in her head would suffice for now: that of her angel in the woods. She had a feeling that he was not a simple worker here, but the Champion who she could not meet. Why else would he hide himself from her? Or could she not gaze upon the faces of many here? Was she not worthy of them?

"I will meet you again, then, Steven."

She returned to the main room of Ever Grande where she could eat and sleep, and the next day she tried again to press forward. But once more Steven appeared on the other side of the door, still hiding his face, and informed her that Phoebe was absent. She caught some illness, he said, and might not come back for some time.

"I don't mind," May said. "I'll try again tomorrow."

 _In hopes that you will be there_ , she added silently to herself, for she grew fond of his voice after these two short encounters. She realized the silliness of that claim, but that was why she kept it in her mind alone. If she muttered those words aloud, he might be frightened and escape, never to be seen again.

Little did she know that Steven thought those same words, that he feared she'd retract herself from him if he even breathed a part of them. The two were bound by the arrow of fate, yet neither recognized it as such.

So the both of them remained quiet, but May returned the next day to see Steven again—and he to see her. They never saw each other, just listened to the beautiful sounds of each other's voices. They spoke of nothing in particular and everything that came to mind, and the days passed with each of them laying with their backs to each other, just a wall separating them in between.

"What do you want more than anything?" Steven asked one day, more than a week since May first came. Phoebe, he heard, was on the brink of recovery, but he did not tell this to May.

"To help people," she responded. "And you?"

"Ah, well… I'm not in want of anything, I guess. Though you could call that selfish compared to your desires," he joked, but May didn't laugh. Even her wanting to help others was partially for selfish reasons.

She didn't know how to respond to this, so she did not. They sat in silence for a minute, and then Steven spoke again in a soft, gentle tone. "That's not entirely true," he corrected himself, more because it sounded right to him than out of concern for May. "I want to see you. That's all I want right now."

May smiled, and she almost turned herself around to peek through the doorway. "We could look."

"No!" Steven responded, with so much haste that May winced. "You've heard what Sidney said. You must know who I am by now, and that means that if you look at me, you'll lose your chance to make your dream come true."

May didn't want to say that it didn't matter much. She knew once again that it was silly. She had known this man for hardly more than a week and knew not what he looked like—and in her nineteen years, a week was no more than a miniscule percentage not even worth mentioning. So small, so insignificant that others would find it useless.

So May again said nothing and did nothing. Time passed, and eventually Steven left and Sidney returned. But still May sat and wondered what would happen if curiosity got the best of her.

It mattered not after that because the next day Steven didn't arrive on the other side of the door. Phoebe healed, and she returned to her post in the next room. Yet May convinced herself that seeing Steven was important to her. How could she be honest with him if she could not see him? What did that make the two of them?

May challenged Phoebe with all of the strength she had, and when she reigned victorious, she asked Phoebe if she might talk to Steven one more time. Phoebe was kind and gentle, and she smiled when she recognized the look of determination on May's face.

"I'll get him for you," she assured May and vanished down the next hall.

May waited patiently in a similar spot to the one in Sidney's room and leaned against the wall. The doors beside her opened, and she heard movement on the other side. Phoebe returned and nodded at May.

"Steven?"

"May, you're one step closer!" Steven exclaimed.

She took a deep breath and turned the corner around the door frame to the other side. There stood a young man not much taller than she, with hair like moonlight and eyes like stars. His beauty could very well outshine hers, if only he stepped into the light. He resembled so much the angel from the forest.

Yet instead of sharing her joy, he jumped back into a shadowed corner of the hall when she came into view with his eyes squeezed shut.

"Stop!" he cried, but it was too late. Phoebe hurried into the hall and yanked May out, shaking her head and clicking her tongue.

"You foolish girl," she muttered.

May's heart broke. Was he not pleased to see her? Was that look of horror on his face because she repulsed him? She, who knew what others said about her? Was everything she thought she knew about herself based on lies?

"You've lost your chance," Phoebe told May. She pointed towards the door back to Sidney's room. "You couldn't stop yourself, could you?"

Distraught, May accepted her punishment. She didn't return home, though by now her parents must have been worried about her. Instead she wandered at the base of the mountain of Ever Grande. It was true that she failed to stop herself, to curb the curiosity, but she gave up everything for just a glance. Now what?

A couple of days passed without word from anyone to the other. May did not hear from Steven nor Sidney nor Phoebe, and the reverse proved true. It was on the third day that Phoebe trekked down the mountain and found May sitting at the water's edge.

"You're still here then."

May glanced up from the water but only for a moment. "I'm thinking. I like to be alone when I think."

"All's not lost, you know." Phoebe sat down, too, and ran a hand through the water. "You must not like to be pitied—no one does—but right now you sit here so pitiable. And this is all the result of Glacia's envy. You have done nothing but be yourself, yet you've turned into the enemy of someone more powerful than you right now. You can still fix things. You can go to Glacia and attempt to fix things. Ask for forgiveness and speak favorably towards her. Then you may see Steven again and have your dreams restored."

There was hardly a choice. May returned to the peak and moved past Sidney's and Phoebe's room down the hall to Glacia. May didn't know what she had done to displease Glacia, but it didn't seem to matter. Regardless, May broke the rules set out to her at the start, so she did need to beg for some forgiveness from that.

But when May entered the room, Glacia cast such a cold look that ice might as well have filled the room. "You do realize," the woman began, "that you are completely undeserving of Steven? You're undesirable and ill-suited for him. But here you stand. The only possible way you could merit yourself to him is by defeating me, my dear."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all that I have done to you, whatever that may be, but I only wanted to gaze upon the man for whom my heart beats most strongly. If you have ever loved someone, you might very well recognize the painful sting of being separated. Yet every day that we were together, there was a wall between us—one that we had the ability to surpass if only we took the chance. Would you not take it?" May demanded.

Glacia said nothing. She opened herself to the challenge, and May agreed. The two clashed in battle with their faithful teams. Each proved a struggle for the other, as Glacia never encountered such a fearsome opponent before and May never challenged someone so firm. But they both knew only one would prove victorious here.

When Glacia's last team member fell, she collapsed to the ground. Her nails scratched against the ground as she curled her fingers into her palms. "You are worthy. You defeated me, and you proved to be stronger and more beautiful than me. I can admit that I fell to you. I don't like it, but I can admit it."

She still kneeled on the ground, but she looked up at May and grimaced. "Go on. I relinquish you. You have one more challenge and then you'll find Steven there, nursing his own broken heart for you."

May rushed forward. Even the next challenger, Drake, could not stop May from reaching her goal. And her wants expanded into two: to see Steven again, just to see him because she feared she could not expect more, and to help people. Both could be achieved today, should she eventually defeat Steven, as well.

In the room at the end of the last hallway stood Steven bathed in light. He raised his head when May entered, and their eyes met. The arrow of fate struck the two of them once more, and May's steps hastened into a near run. She stopped inches before him, waiting for him to say something before saying something herself.

"You've defeated Glacia," he commented, and May nodded. "And now at last we can gaze upon each other freely. You're even more beautiful than I remember, and your strength surpasses all I know."

"You, as well. Though you remind me of the night, you appear more glorious in the day," May responded, and Steven smiled. "I must apologize for breaking the one rule set before me. I must have caused you terrible pain."

But Steven shook his head. "If you did not let curiosity take hold of you, I may have very well. I longed every day to see you." He wiped a stray tear that fell from May's eye as it dribbled down her cheek. "Should you choose it, you can join us here. Be part of the elite. All you must do is take me on as your final challenger."

May nodded. And with her victory over Steven, the two became united at last for as long as they desired each other.

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 **Author's Note:** This was such a unique writing prompt for me and a lot of fun. Hopefully you, the readers, enjoyed it. Be sure to check out the real myth if you're interested.


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